In gastroenterology, a good bedside manner is a vital attribute. Visiting with an anxious patient before a colonoscopy, Adjoa Anyane-Yeboa, MD, MPH, knew what to say to calm him down.
“I could tell he was really nervous about the procedure, even though he wasn’t letting on,” said Dr. Anyane-Yeboa, a gastroenterologist with Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. She put him at ease by cracking jokes and making him smile during the consent process. After it was over, he thanked her for making him feel more comfortable.
“I will have it done again, and I’ll come back to you next time,” said the patient.
Courtesy Commonwealth Fund
Dr. Adjoa Anyane-Yeboa
GI doctors perform colonoscopies all day, every day, “so we sometimes forget how nervous people are. But it’s nice to be able to connect with people and put them at ease,” she said.
Interacting with patients gives her joy. Addressing health disparities is her long-term goal. Dr. Anyane-Yeboa’s research has focused on the barriers to colorectal cancer screening in the Black population, as well as disparities in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
“I think there’s a lot that still needs to be done around colorectal cancer screening,” she said.
In an interview, she talks more in depth about her research and her ongoing work to increase public knowledge and awareness about colorectal cancer screening.
Q: Why did you choose GI?
Dr. Anyane-Yeboa: When I got to residency, GI was the rotation that was the most fun. I was the most excited to read about it, the most excited to go to work the next day.
I remember people saying, “You should look at the people who are in the field and look at their personalities, and then think about which personalities match you best.” In residency I considered hematology, cardiology, and GI. The cardiologists were so serious, so intense, talking about research methods all the time. Whereas, the GI folks were joking, laughing, making fart jokes. I felt like these were my people, lighthearted and easy-going. And I genuinely enjoyed going to work every day and learning about the disorders of the GI tract. I still do to this day.
Q: Let’s discuss your research with IBD in Black populations and colorectal cancer screening.
Dr. Anyane-Yeboa: My two main areas of work are in IBD and minority populations, predominantly Black populations, and in colorectal cancer screening in minority populations, and again, mostly in historically marginalized populations.
With colon cancer, we know that there are disparities with incidence in mortality. Black individuals have had the second highest incidence in mortality from colorectal cancer. For me, being a Black female physician and seeing people who look like me, time and time again, being diagnosed with colorectal cancer and dying is really what drives me, because in GI, colon cancer screening is our bread and butter.
Some of the work that I’m doing now around colorectal cancer is in predominantly Black community health centers, working on increasing colorectal cancer screening rates in this population, and figuring out what the barriers are to screening and how we can address them, and what are some strategies that will work in a health center setting to get people screened.
